168 BURNHAM BEECHES. [June, 



On the third day I walked to St. Helen's Spit, a narrow slip 

 of ground, partly sandbank and partly furzy common, lying along 

 the beach, west of the narrow mouth of the inlet called Brading 

 Harbour. I had found more interesting plants here formerly, in 

 particular Scilla autumnalis, very tall and luxuriant. It now 

 abounded with incipient Euphorbia Paralias, and the wreck of 

 last year's Salsola Kali. My object at present, still under Dr. 

 Bromfield's guidance, was Cerastium tetrandrum : and I certainly 

 found it, but so mixed with C. semidecandrum, and probably 

 others, and among so many intermediate forms, that I much 

 incline towards the growing opinion that at least these two and 

 C. pumilum (Dr, Bromfield, and that eminent botanist Mr. Ben- 

 tham, add glomeratum and even triviale), are but extreme speci- 

 mens of the variations of one multiform plant. The Editor of 

 the Phytologist, to whom I had the pleasure of sending a few of 

 my specimens, is far better able than I am to throw light on this 

 interesting and difficult question. 



EXTEACTS FROM CORRESPONDENCE. 

 Remarks on the Botany of Burnham Beeches. 



A long letter might be easily written about the locality of these 

 famous old trees, the scene of poetic sentimentalities and unsen- 

 timental picnics. Many a name is carved on the smooth bark of 

 the Beeches; many an initial cut into the smooth green turf, 

 which is here and there strewn with the relics and remains of 

 rural refreshments. The Editor's faithful correspondent has little 

 to relate about the plants, because there are but few plants about 

 which there is anything worth relating. 



Buckinghamshire has the reputation of being rich in vegetable 

 rarities : will any obliging correspondent make a note of them, 

 and send it to the ' Phytologist ' ? The list of plants recorded in 

 the ' Botanist's Guide,' as the growth of this county, is a very 

 short one, and one or two out of this meagre number have no 

 right to be here, because they are not Buckinghamshire species. 

 [What are these intrusive species?] 



From what I saw of this part of Bucks, — from the variety of 

 its surface and soil ; there is marly, gravelly or gritty, and banky 



